Monday, November 7, 2011

Lesbian Shapeshifter Fiction

Shapeshifters are a lot of fun - from the traditional werewolf to modern fantastical variants. They can be loners, terrifying and misunderstood, or relaxed and secure in their pack. From secretive to bestial, glorious to vicious, werewolves tend to appeal to those seeking a sense of freedom and power, as opposed to the control and seduction of vampires.

Sadly, the list of exclusively lesbian werewolf fiction is a very short one (and feline shifters are even rarer yet - and that's about it for types) - many the shifters in the titles below have to share their stories with lesbian vampires as well!

Note: Books that happen to have a lesbian secondary character are not included. Both the werewolf (or other shapechanger) and the lesbian have to be primary parts of the plot and not thrown in as a token character, or part of the background, however well written. These are books for reading about lesbians and shapeshifters, not books that 'happen to have a lesbian werewolf in one scene'.

These titles took a while to track down - if you know of any more, please share! Historical, Fantasy and SciFiSome rather unique titles that don't really fit in the rest of the list. All are worth picking up.

An outsider in a paranoid, guarded town in futuristic America, young Loup is the daughter of a genetically modified and wolflike 'supersoldier'. A story about military rule, boxing and standing up for what's right, but not exactly a werewolf story.

A collection of the five stories in this series, charting fantasy dynastic politics set in a fantasy land of avian and serpent shapeshifters. Complicated plots that tend to tie themselves in knots, but generally well reviewed. It does start going downhill, so the last couple of books aren't nearly as good. Unfortunately, that includes the lesbian one.

Wolfcry is the fourth story in the series. It features a lesbian romance with the main character, although it isn't wonderfully developed, more of a plot twist. But it is a main part of the book, and generally positive.

Urban Fantasy: Shapeshifter only

Fiction that just focuses on the werewolves - horror, murder mysteries and parody, almost all with a touch of lesbian romance! (Most of the books are mysteries, though)

A fast paced thriller about a murder mystery, that leads the local sheriff to a mysterious young woman who lives closely with the pale local wolves. An exciting clash between science and superstition, with a dash of love.

While the first book was pretty hit and miss, the rest of the series has been a lot better. Set in the modern world, werewolves exist and a whole pack of them have claimed an entire valley to themselves. They seem to have a surprisingly high number of lesbians, which usually end up falling in love with a human and leading to Plot. The werewolves are fairly typical, if very organised and quite civilised.

A feminist lesbian werewolf love story, set in a modern world where werewolf attacks are apparently normal. Lexie heads to college and meets a radical group of women who aim to end the werewolf menace - as well as attractive, mysterious Archer. Drama, politics, sex, romance and horror ensues.

A pregnant woman flees to her lover's family, her lover dying to protect them. There, she finds love again, learns that her baby isn't quite human, that all the women are shapeshifters, and that terrible forces are after the child.

Second Nature by Jae (Various types of shapeshifter, lead is is tiger/lion shifter, romance)

The Wrasa are a species of shapeshifters, living in secret amongst humanity, rife with politics and desperate to stay hidden at all costs. When Jorie Price writes a book that treads much too close to reality, they send assassins to silence her - including Griffin, who ends up falling for her.

A splendid werewolf mystery set around the uneasy homecoming of Aayla Hammond, who left her pack due to tension over her lesbianism, only to be drawn into a missing person case that her (human) girlfriend is involved in.

Stubborn, rural Tammy arrives in town just as the biker pack (literally) arrives, and is caught up in an erotic romance with a silver haired werewolf. Unfortunately, Kathleen is currently mated to the alpha male, who doesn't take losing his mate lightly... More of an erotic novella than a full story, it works well as a sexy but unstartling shifter romance, less well for people wanted more.

Selene Rhodes, the werewolf in this story, is transformed against her will each month into the monster out of legend. A thriller-mystery, she ends up joining forces with her mutually wary and emotionally fearful love interest, a forensic pathologist, in catching a serial killer.

Urban Fantasy: multiple fantasy races, standard modern setting, generally non-seriousA lot of urban fantasy just throws the doors open to the paranormal, with werewolves, witches and vampires coexisting in various uneasy combinations.These all appear on the Lesbian Vampire Book List as well.

The first part of a three novella series (or part 1/3 of a full book), this is a fun paranormal romance about a werewolf who rescues an angel, ends up as her chef and gets caught up in a mysterious spate of vampire attacks.

Rachel Morgan is a witch and bounty hunter who clashes with the authorities and ends up on the run, in an uneasy alliance with Ivy, a bisexual vampire who's in love with her. A paranormal mystery full of fantasy creatures, similiar to Laurell K. Hamilton's early Anita Blake novels, only with more plot and less sex. Shapeshifting figures fairly prominently.

Notes: The series is very popular, currently has ten books published, with two or three more on the way. Ultimately not a lesbian series, though gay friendly and Ivy is a significant supporting character throughout..

When Valentine is bitten by a vampire, her and her beloved struggle to cope, stay together, and bring Valentine's attacker to justice in a world of shapeshifters and the paranormal. Panther shapeshifter/Vampire romance.

Drake the medic saves the life of a girl suffering from werefever, gets bitten and attracts the attention of the local alpha... werewolf forbidden love story, featuring vampires. Rather a lot of focus on bestiality.

Kassandra Lyall's lovelife and job is already difficult, but the witch, werewolf and investigator's world becomes a lot more complicated when a seductive vampire takes a very personal interest in her. An urban fantasy romance mystery that begins a new series.

Second book in the series is Raven Mask (in which the vampire Countess is established as Kassandra's lover)

A recent anthology that is entirely about alpha lesbian werewolves. Erotic romance about scary, sexy and strong female shapeshifters and a reasonably good selection of stories (although that does depend on how picky you are).

"Soul Mates" by Ali Spooner, a story about a werewolf who falls in love with a human and is trapped in wolf form. Download from Smashwords

The Cage is a free short story by Alyx Dellamonica, about modern day werewolves, and two women left, literally, holding the baby after its mother is murdered. Read it online

"The Witch Sea" by Sarah Diemer is a mythology themed short story. Not exactly a shapeshifter story; all but one of the cast are sea creatures transformed into human shape, and the love interest is a seal girl. She gradually becomes less seal like as she comes to the protagonist, a witch keeping their god trapped on land. Download from Smashwords, or read the review.

Comics/ Graphic novels

Mystique is the penultimate shapeshifter and a central character throughout the X-Men. However, her bisexuality and gender shifting was glossed over and snuck past the editors for many years. She was originally created as bisexual, and was in a secret, committed relationship with a woman for most of her existence.

As there's no one issue that's openly about Mystique being bisexual, you will probably want to read more about Mystique and her appearances in Marvel canon before deciding which titles to pick up.

Karolina, from the young adult Marvel comics, the Runaways, is a lesbian alien girl. She doesn't really shapeshift, but her natural form is quite fluid. Her (arranged marriage) fiance Xavin is a Skrull, a race of true shapeshifting aliens and 'he' turns into a human female for her. Xavin shifts genders a fair bit and there are plenty of issues around this that many transgender people are probably familiar with (pronouns, questioning of their 'true' sex, and so on).

11 comments:

If I may offer up my own short story "Skylar's Pride." Skylar is a cougar-shifter, lesbian-partnered with a human with a pre-teen son. It can be found as part of the Torquere Press Sapphic Signs line: http://tinyurl.com/3qzjx5z

Since I see others have been adding suggestions up through fairly recently, I'll venture to do so as well. My series of "skin-singer" stories in the Sword and Sorceress anthology series (originally edited by Marion Zimmer Bradley) involves two shape-shifting women in a relationship that evolves into a committed romantic and sexual one. There are 6 stories in the series at this point, but the first two ("Skins" in S&S 12 and "More Than One Way" in S&S 13) have no overt lesbian content although the first member of the eventual couple is introduced in the latter. The second member of the couple first appears in "By the Skin of Her Teeth" in S&S 14 and the lesbian elements are overtly present in "Skin Deep" (S&S 15), "The Skin Trade" (S&S 21) and "Skin and Bones" (S&S 22). These are secondary-world fantasy and the shape-shifting is more in the shamantic vein than the werewolf genre.

"Wolf's Eyes" by Rae D. Magdon is the sequel to "The Second Sister" and is about a girl, Cate, who goes back to her homeland to find out about visions she's having. On her way, she's kidnapped by a witch who turns her into a werewolf, but is rescued by a pack of werewolves living in the forest. Cate learns more about the tension rising in Amendyr while negotiating her new role in the pack and discovering what it means to be a werewolf. Meanwhile, the pack's two betas, a male and a vaguely familiar female, seem to be taking quite an interest in her.

Rae's twist on the Red Riding Hood tale is a great adventure that feels original. “Wolf’s Eyes” is fun, sweet, and set in an interesting world with winning characters who are put through a lot of craziness. It’s brilliant. Just like the plot twist. There are intense moments, creepy moments, gory moments, silly moments, romantic moments, and character development that’ll make you smile with pride. You can’t go wrong reading this.